Flywheel taxi app adds advance booking for airport trips

San Francisco Muni buses now carry ads for Flywheel, a smartphone app for hailing, tracking and paying for taxi rides, one way the beleaguered taxi industry tries to combat incursions by Uber and Lyft. Flywheel now lets SF riders pre-book trips to local airports.

Taxi companies scored a new weapon in their battle against the ride companies like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar, which have siphoned their business.

“This was the top request on customer focus groups,” said Steve Humphreys, CEO of Redwood City’s Flywheel. About 80 percent of SF cabs now use his app in addition to traditional dispatch and street hails, he said. Flywheel offers the same features as the apps for Uber, Lyft, etc., including quick ride requests, real-time maps of a cab’s location and credit card processing,

Flywheel passengers pay the regular metered rate plus a $1 fee that goes to Flywheel, which also takes 10 percent of the fare. Airport rides do not cost extra.

“Pre-booking is tricky; if someone has to be at the airport at 5 a.m., it has to be 100 percent guaranteed,” Humphreys said. “We have systems in place to make sure you get picked up no matter what.”

The advance reservations are only for airport drop-offs. For pick-ups — which Uber and Lyft are barred from providing — passengers still must queue up at the airport.

For now, the reservations are only for passengers within San Francisco proper, but the service will expand to other parts of the Bay Area in the coming months. Seattle and Los Angeles will get pre-booking of airport rides later this summer.

“Flywheel in my mind is the savior for the taxi industry,” said Hansu Kim, owner of San Francisco’s DeSoto Cab Co. Rides booked via Flywheel account for about 20 percent “and growing” of the business for his 200-cab fleet. “With the right marketing push to let people know about our technology, the taxi industry can win back market share.”

The San Francisco MTA is lending a hand with that marketing push, displaying ads for Flywheel whenever it has extra space inside or outside Muni buses or at bus stops. The “Hail a Real Taxi Driver with Flywheel” ads are on about 50 buses at any one time, Humphreys said.